EPISTEMOLOGIES OF THE CLOSETS

NEW PUBLIC PERFORMANCES AND EVASIVE TACTICS IN THE INFORMATION SOCIETY

Abstract

The article revisits Epistemology of the Closet (Eve Sedgwick, 1990) to think about its actuality and limits. By locating the construction of this image in the experience of gays, cis and whites, it questions the common sense it reinforces (gays opening and closing their private lives), verifies that the new trans and queer subjects demand to think in a plural way about the epistemologies of closets, as there are unconsidered experiences that destabilize the notions of secrecy/revelation or private/public space. It suggests that cisheterosexuals own their closets and feed the images of the gay closet as a “scapegoat”. It reflects on the transformations in the closet, from journalistic denunciation and judicialization, analyzed by Sedgwick, to the representation of kissing in soap operas and the use of dating apps. The objective is to question how LGBTQIA+ experiences were redefined, bringing new perspectives on the political deadlocks in the struggle for rights.